The globalizability of temporal discounting
Authors: Kai Ruggeri, Amma Panin, Milica Vdovic, Bojana Većkalov, Nazeer Abdul-Salaam, Jascha Achterberg, Carla Akil, Jolly Amatya, Kanchan Amatya, Thomas Lind Andersen, Sibele D. Aquino, Arjoon Arunasalam, Sarah Ashcroft-Jones, Adrian Dahl Askelund, Nélida Ayacaxli, Aseman Bagheri Sheshdeh, Alexander Bailey, Paula Barea Arroyo, Genaro Basulto Mejía, Martina Benvenuti, Mari Louise Berge, Aliya Bermaganbet, Katherine Bibilouri, Ludvig Daae Bjørndal, Sabrina Black, Johanna K. Blomster Lyshol, Tymofii Brik, Eike Kofi Buabang, Matthias Burghart, Aslı Bursalıoğlu, Naos Mesfin Buzayu, Martin Čadek, Nathalia Melo de Carvalho, Ana-Maria Cazan, Melis Çetinçelik, Valentino E. Chai, Patricia Chen, Shiyi Chen, Georgia Clay, Simone D’Ambrogio, Kaja Damnjanović, Grace Duffy, Tatianna Dugue, Twinkle Dwarkanath, Esther Awazzi Envuladu, Nikola Erceg, Celia Esteban-Serna, Eman Farahat, R. A. Farrokhnia, Mareyba Fawad, Muhammad Fedryansyah, David Feng, Silvia Filippi, Matías A. Fonollá, René Freichel, Lucia Freira, Maja Friedemann, Ziwei Gao, Suwen Ge, Sandra J. Geiger, Leya George, Iulia Grabovski, Aleksandra Gracheva, Anastasia Gracheva, Ali Hajian, Nida Hasan, Marlene Hecht, Xinyi Hong, Barbora Hubená, Alexander Gustav Fredriksen Ikonomeas, Sandra Ilić, David Izydorczyk, Lea Jakob, Margo Janssens, Hannes Jarke, Ondřej Kácha, Kalina Nikolova Kalinova, Forget Mingiri Kapingura, Ralitsa Karakasheva, David Oliver Kasdan, Emmanuel Kemel, Peggah Khorrami, Jakub M. Krawiec, Nato Lagidze, Aleksandra Lazarević, Aleksandra Lazić, Hyung Seo Lee, Žan Lep, Samuel Lins, Ingvild Sandø Lofthus, Lucía Macchia, Salomé Mamede, Metasebiya Ayele Mamo, Laura Maratkyzy, Silvana Mareva, Shivika Marwaha, Lucy McGill, Sharon McParland, Anișoara Melnic, Sebastian A. Meyer, Szymon Mizak, Amina Mohammed, Aizhan Mukhyshbayeva, Joaquin Navajas, Dragana Neshevska, Shehrbano Jamali Niazi, Ana Elsa Nieto Nieves, Franziska Nippold, Julia Oberschulte, Thiago Otto, Riinu Pae, Tsvetelina Panchelieva, Sun Young Park, Daria Stefania Pascu, Irena Pavlović, Marija B. Petrović, Dora Popović, Gerhard M. Prinz, Nikolay R. Rachev, Pika Ranc, Josip Razum, Christina Eun Rho, Leonore Riitsalu, Federica Rocca, R. Shayna Rosenbaum, James Rujimora, Binahayati Rusyidi, Charlotte Rutherford, Rand Said, Inés Sanguino, Ahmet Kerem Sarikaya, Nicolas Say, Jakob Schuck, Mary Shiels, Yarden Shir, Elisabeth D. C. Sievert, Irina Soboleva, Tina Solomonia, Siddhant Soni, Irem Soysal, Federica Stablum, Felicia T. A. Sundström, Xintong Tang, Felice Tavera, Jacqueline Taylor, Anna-Lena Tebbe, Katrine Krabbe Thommesen, Juliette Tobias-Webb, Anna Louise Todsen, Filippo Toscano, Tran Tran, Jason Trinh, Alice Turati, Kohei Ueda, Martina Vacondio, Volodymyr Vakhitov, Adrianna J. Valencia, Chiara Van Reyn, Tina A. G. Venema, Sanne E. Verra, Jáchym Vintr, Marek A. Vranka, Lisa Wagner, Xue Wu, Ke Ying Xing, Kailin Xu, Sonya Xu, Yuki Yamada, Aleksandra Yosifova, Zorana Zupan, Eduardo García-Garzon
Journal: Nature Human Behaviour (2022)

Economic inequality is associated with preferences for smaller, immediate gains over larger, delayed ones. Such temporal discounting may feed into rising global inequality, yet it is unclear whether it is a function of choice preferences or norms, or rather the absence of sufficient resources for immediate needs. It is also not clear whether these reflect true differences in choice patterns between income groups. We tested temporal discounting and five intertemporal choice anomalies using local currencies and value standards in 61 countries (N = 13,629). Across a diverse sample, we found consistent, robust rates of choice anomalies. Lower-income groups were not significantly different, but economic inequality and broader financial circumstances were clearly correlated with population choice patterns.